Saints 0-0 Brechin City
Last updated : 08 November 2003 By Stuart Gillespie
Sod talking about the game for long, needless to say we were rank. No ideas, sod all fight. When a team goes down to 10 men and their sub goalie it can be a good idea to have some shots. Instead we had three between him coming on and full time. A shot which hit the post and almost went in, a duff free kick and another shot he saved well. Brechin had someone sent off for kicking Allan "I was at the MTV Awards don't you know" Russell after he went in for a challenge on Derek Soutar. Soutar didn't really recover and had to be taken off, bad news for Brechin as he has been an outstanding goalie.
The rest of this report will be from what I've posted on the official forum as I can't be bothered typing it again.
I'm starting a new thread on this as I am absolutely disgusted, appaled and generally pissed off with what I saw, not just today but over the majority of home games this season.
I'll concentrate on today first. It was terrible, and how we did not lose that game is a mystery. Brechin were down to 10 men, had a sub goalie in and did we attack? Did we hell! We chuck on two unfit strikers and Robert Dunn in place of our front three. yes they were knackered/playing crap, but for god sake why not cut down the number of defenders we had and go for a goal? It looked like we were playing for a draw from the moment we hit the post! We didn't even pressure their goalie, or Soutar when he was injured! The sub goalie had one shot to save (apart from Crilly's pathetic free kick). Had we been raining shots at him and he'd played a blinder, fair enough. But we weren't. Ellis was clear down the left on several occasions and never got the ball. When he did the North Bank gave a sarccy cheer.
The defence is absolutely dreadful, and it is beyond beliefe that we have what is classed as a "solid defence". McGowne's distribution is worse than mine, I'd almost rather have Klaus Dietrich back than put up with him in our defence.
There is no fight about this team. The squad John Coughlin put together is one of good players, but some are hardly ever fit (Twaddle and Annand for example), and some are just not up to standard. Folk on here were fully aware of Twaddle's injury record and said we shouldn't tough him, yet we hand him a two year contract! Why?
The tactics are shocking, there is no belief, and we must pick up more injuries in training than any other club in Europe. Apparently this was down to TH's training method's, obviously not. We were told last season that JC hadn't had a chance because it wasn't his squad. It is now and we're doing terribly. Only one of the players HE signed in the transfer window is still here.
Last week I said JC should go if we don't beat Brechin. I wasn't as bothered after their win last week, but to draw with them when they had 10 men and a dodgy goalkeeper for half an hour is unacceptable.
You can smite me, moan at me, say what you want, but I've had enough and don't care. The only way I'd want JC to stay is if we won the rest of our games this season.
Please go now JC, as if you don't we're heading for the second division and, even worse, Soapdodgers will be passing us.
